12 tart shells, baked
3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 cups hot water
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 lemon, juiced and zested

3 egg whites
1 tablespoon icing sugar

1. Combine flour, cornstarch, sugar, salt and hot water in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir constantly until mixture thickens and begins to boil.
2. Remove from heat and gradually stir about 1/3 of the hot liquid into the egg yolks. Add this back to the saucepan.
3. Return to the heat, stirring constantly, until mixture returns to a boil.
4. Add the lemon zest and gradually stir in the lemon juice. Continue stirring until liquid is thick. Remove from heat.
5. Preheat oven broiler.
6. Pour filling into prepared tart shells.
7. In a cold bowl, combine the egg whites and icing sugar and beat on high until it forms stiff peaks.
8. Top tarts with egg white and place under oven broiler until the tops brown, about 5 minutes. Allow to cool in the refrigerator before serving.

Makes 12 tarts

8 sheets puff pastry or phyllo dough
4 six ounce skinless salmon fillets
5 shallots, minced
4 tablespoons fresh tarragon, chopped
1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Take 2 sheets of dough and slice them in half to form 4 12×6" rectangles. Place a salmon fillet in the center of the rectangle, season with salt and pepper, 1 of the shallots and 1/4 of the tarragon.
3. Brush edges of the dough with egg and fold up over the salmon, brushing the seam with more egg. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
4. Arrange salmon, seam side down, on a greased baking sheet, and brush the tops with the remaining egg. Bake until dough is golden brown, about 20 minutes, then remove from the oven and let rest.
5. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine wine, vinegar and remaining shallot and bring to a boil, reducing by half.
6. Remove the saucepan from the heat and whisk in chilled butter, 1 piece at a time. Stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Slice salmon wellington into thirds and pour a portion of the sauce over top to serve.

Makes 4 servings

Tonight marks Shannon and my third year anniversary. We did little to celebrate beyond being with each other, which is a bit of a rare treat these days, opting to stay in for dinner and a movie. We didn't exchange gifts because we're saving all our money for the move, though I did buy her some flowers while we were grocery shopping. It's been the best three years of my life and I look forward to many more with her.

A friend of mine had suggested that I make Salmon Wellington with a Cranberry Sauce a few months ago, and when I made Spanakopita I felt like a bit of an ass for not doing so with the phyllo. This time around it's just silly, since I actually made phyllo wrapped salmon and didn't go with the cranberry sauce accompaniment. For what it's worth, I'm sure it'd be a good dish. I'd never made Wellington anything before, so the fact that this turned out practically perfect made me quite happy. I kept thinking I'd added something else without realizing it, but these basic ingredients yielded such a perfect entree. The phyllo was flaky, the salmon was perfectly cooked and the tarragon and wine was just such a nice addition. Also, as a corny side note, I divided into 3 pieces for each year we've been together. The pieces were set on a simple Rice Pilaf. The smell of celery and rice cooking in butter is such a pleasant aroma.

All Shannon really cared about was making Lemon Tarts, which she has been craving for weeks and weeks without any satisfaction. I browsed numerous websites for a good recipe before Shannon called her mom and asked for hers. We bought prepared tart shells because I don't have the proper equipment or patience to make them myself. We followed the ingredients exactly and our filling ended up as a gray sludge. We tried adding yellow food coloring, but it was just sucked into the void. The only contrast between her recipe and the others I'd seen was that hers was missing another 9 egg yolks and had more sugar. In looking up what could have possibly gone wrong, I'm still baffled. The best I can think of is the yolk thing or because of a reaction with our pot, which isn't aluminum but has a nonstick coating that might affect that sort of thing. The meringue turned out quite well to cover the grayness, but I couldn't eat them because I felt like I was biting into a Neo Citron reduction or something.